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Part of the decoration of churches in northern Cyprus were discovered during police raids in Munich (Natali Hami and George Psyllides, "German court order return of stolen Cypriot treasures", Cyprus Mail September 28, 2010). The items include:15th century frescoes from the monastery of Christou tou Antifoniti;a 6th-Century mosaic from the church of the Panayia Kanakaria;murals from the church of the Panayia Pergamiotissa;two icons from the monastery of Saint ChrysostomosThe items are reported to have been found "hidden inside the walls and under the floorboards in two apartments". If they were were there legitimately why were they hidden?

And the user of the two flats was Aydin Dikmen who appears to have used "false names" to use the flats.

Dikmen is reported to be linked to other cases of religious objects from Cyprus including the Kanakaria mosaics, and the frescoes from Ayios Themonianos near Lysi.

Once again the Washington lobbyist for the International Association of Professional Numismatists (IAPN), Peter Tompa, has raised issues about my comment on the proposed MOU between Greece and the US. Tompa asks: "Gill should disclose any funding sources for his releases and any contacts he might have with the Greek government that may have influenced his decision to issue this press release."

It is not the first time that the Washington lobbyist has detected some conspiracy: remember Operation Tartuffo? Perhaps he imagines me sitting in some kaphenion in the western Peloponnese and being presented with brown envelopes filled with Euros.

Or could there be some simpler explanation?

John Hooker claims to know (source uncited!) that I pay "a rate of $400 per 400 words for [my] frequent PR Newswire releases". More than a year on Hooker has not provided a shred of evidence to support his claim.

The Italian Ministry of Culture has announced that a Laconian krater seized during Operation Andromeda has been returned to Sicily and placed on display in Gela (press release, September 24, 2010). It appears that the krater, attributed to the Hunt painter, was recognised from the press show in the Colosseum earlier this summer. The krater had apparently been in a private collection in Gela, and had then passed through the hands of Giacomo Medici and Robin Symes; at some point it is reported to have been sold at Sotheby's in London.

The krater is said to have been recovered from the basement of a Swiss accountant who is linked to the Japanese dealer Noryioshi Horiuchi.

Pots attributed to the Hunt painter include a piece identified in Madrid, formerly in the Várez Fisa collection, and a cup returned to Italy from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Princeton, unlike Boston and the J. Paul Getty Museum, has never released the collecting histories of the pieces returned to Italy (for list see here). Earlier this summer Fabio Isman responded to the story in the New York Times about Edoardo Almagià and Princeton University Art Museum (Fabio Isman, "Scoppia il caso Almagià-Padgett", Il Giornale dell'Arte June 2010). Isman reproduced images of two of the pieces - one returned to Italy, the other remaining in Princeton - that feature in the Medici Dossier seized in the Geneva Freeport. So it appears that the Italian authorities have not pressed for the return of every piece identified from the selections of photographic material.

But how is Princeton going to respond to the Almagià report? What will the file say about the art museum's acquisition policy?

Comments on the proposed MOU between the US and Greece, including quotes from Jack L. Davis, Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), and Sebastian Heath, Vice President for Professional Responsibilities, Archaeological Institute of America.

In October Christie's (London) will be offering a Roman parade helmet reported to have been found at Crosby Garrett in Cumbria (7 October 2010, lot 176). The helmet is said to have been found in May 2010 by a metal-detectorist, and details appear on the website of the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The fragmentary ("found in 33 fragments, with 34 smaller fragments found in association") Roman helmet was discovered in May.

I suspect there would be export restrictions on the piece if the successful bidder wanted to take this unusual piece abroad.

Sebastian Heath, the Vice President for Professional Responsibilities at the Archaeological Institute of America, has circulated a statement about the proposed MOU with Greece.

He writes:

The United States' Cultural Property Advisory Committee has asked for comment on a proposed Memorandum of Understanding between Greece and the United States that will help protect Greece's archaeological heritage. The deadline for submitting comments is Sept. 22.

The Archaeological Institute of America has established a page athttp://archaeological.org/cpac, which gives more information on MoUs in general, and on how to submit comments this round. Cribbing from that page:

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Do not send in your letter by regular mail. First class postage goes through security clearing and can take weeks to reach the State Department. …

Earlier this year two auction-houses offered objects that appeared to feature in the Medici Dossier (and in one case the Schinoussa Archive). In one case the auction-house decided to withdraw the lots. In the second case, the company pressed ahead with the sale, ignoring the high profile bad publicity in the Wall Street Journal (and in spite of having three items seized on its premises in 2009).

Can we presume that the auction-houses have adopted more rigorous due diligence procedures to avoid the repeat of previous sales?

The statue of Entemena has returned to Iraq (Farah Stockman, "Kept safe in US, Iraqi royal statue heads home", Boston Globe September 7, 2010). The statue had been looted from the National Museum in Baghdad and then re-emerged in Syria. The US authorities had been alerted by an Iraqi dealer based in New York: "The dealer, who had been caught falsifying documents related to another artifact, agreed to help get the statue back".

The report shows the role of Professor John Russell of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

The story is a timely reminder about the need to look for fully documented and authenticated collecting histories.

Just over a year ago US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers recovered a Corinthian krater from Christie's in New York. The krater had apparently passed through the hands of Giacomo Medici and then surfaced at auction in London. Evidence (presumably photographic from the Medici Dossier) demonstrated that the piece was "indeed part of Italy's cultural property". A complete krater like this had probably been removed from an ancient tomb, perhaps Etruscan.

I was struck by the image of another Corinthian piece from the Medici Dossier showing an archaic amphora decorated with a winged siren. Notice that the setting for the photograph appears to be very similar to the one used for the krater. Where is it now? Does it reside in a public or private collection? Is it part of a dealer's stock?

Note that another Corinthian krater was returned to Italy from the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Such recently-surfaced pieces hinder the study of the distribution of archai…

Readers of Looting Matters will be interested to know that the online catalogue for the sale of antiquities on 6 October 2010 is now available.

There are several interesting lots including one ex-Borowski Corinthian pyxis (lot 70) [estimate $3100-4700] that sold at Christie's 12 June 2000 (lot 20) for $1410.

There is also an Attic black-figured Nikosthenic amphora (lot 93), with the inscription Pamphaios mepoies(e)n that appeared in the Phoenix Ancient Art catalogue, "The Painter's Eye, The Art of Greek Ceramics. Greek Vases from a Swiss Private Collection and other European Collections" (Geneva-New York, 2006, 8-11, no.2) [details].

Christos Tsirogiannis is conducting important research on the Medici Dossier. A polaroid in the archive shows an Attic red-figured calyx-krater with a Dionysiac scene. The krater is still encrusted with mud and salt deposits; it appears to be fresh out of the ground.

The krater appears to be the one acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art (inv. 83.80). The MIA website has the following description:On the front is a lively procession, with the wine god Dionysus amid his entourage of cavorting satyrs and maenads, or female devotees. Of particular interest is the child-satyr who, in an apparently unique representation, rides on the shoulders of one of the maenads.The child-satyr is seen quite clearly in this image.

The krater was acquired from Robin Symes in 1983 (see Star Tribune November 14, 2005, "The Minneapolis Institute of Arts bought its vase "in good faith" from Robin Symes, ... said museum spokeswoman Anne-Marie Wagener", archived here) and was reported …

About Me

David Gill is Professor of Archaeological Heritage and Director of Heritage Futures at the University of Suffolk. He was a Rome Scholar at the British School at Rome and a Sir James Knott Fellow at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was subsequently part of the Department of Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, and Reader in Mediterranean Archaeology, Swansea University. He holds the Archaeological Institute of America's Outstanding Public Service Award (2012).